The College of Staten Island women’s volleyball team opened its season tonight on the road, taking on FDU – Florham in a non-conference test that saw a heavy-handed loss. The Devils dumped the Dolphins in straight sets, 25-3, 25-9, and 25-15, opening up their season 1-0, while the Dolphins fell to 0-1 under new head coach Lak Wai (Larry) Ng.
It was a night of growing pains for the Dolphins, who fell behind, 9-1, in the opening set helped by kills from three different FDU players. Nathalia Padron added a couple of more kills in a 7-0 run that maximized the lead further before a 25-3 final, with two of CSI’s three-points coming off of FDU serve errors.
The Dolphins were crisper in the second set, but were out-paced by a strong FDU side that produced 16 kills in the second set. Teresa Maresca popped in a pair of kills for CSI but too many runs by the Devils kept the Dolphins at bay.
In the third, CSI put up its biggest fight, falling by 10. In the initial stages, a Margaret O’Malley-Rebovich kill got CSI to within 8-7, but then three Katie Quinlan kills helped pop FDU’s lead back up to 14-7, and the Dolphins could not overcome the deficit.
FDU was led by Lauren Harris and Quinlan’s 12 kills, while Melissa Gaffney squeezed in 10 of her own. Gaffney added three aces, while Rachel Catena led the team with seven digs. For CSI, Cassidy Iannariello finished with eight digs, leading all scorers, while Maresca paced the team with three kills. Vanessa Reyes added two service aces.
CSI will be idle until Tuesday, September 5, when they travel to face New Jersey City University at 7pm in Jersey City, NJ.
